Homeschool Planet {Mosaics Review}

I'm a pencil and paper kind of gal myself.  In fact, I've gone through several homeschool planners, blog planners, and menu planners, of all different types and varieties.  Some of them I've liked and used often, some of them I immediately kicked myself for wasting my money.  But, through it all, one thing I have never tried has been an online planner.  Like I said, pencil and paper!  Thats for me!

Well, I had this chance to try out an online planner for free from a company that I know and love called Homeschool Planet.  Ooohh boy, do I like free!  I like free more than I like pencil and paper, so I decided to take the plunge and give it a go.  Homeschool Planet is more than an online homeschool planner.  It is a virtual EVERYTHING planner.  

Homeschool Planet is intuitive to set up, allowing you to input all of your family members and their pictures.   You can color code each person and homeschool subject.  You can also color code appointments and other activities.  Typing them into the system is easy too.

Scheduling individual subjects and assignments is as simple as typing them into a spreadsheet and assigning page numbers or chapters.  You can assign subjects to one or more children and set it to schedule on certain days, repeat, or skip days.

Once you get your subjects into the system you can choose multiple views to see the same information.  Calendar view is my favorite.  I prefer a "big picture" to look at of all the things we hope to get done this month...

You can also view by day or week.  In my defense we are in the middle of moving and not doing much structured schooling right now!  Normally my calendar would be much more full.

Planner view allows you to see what needs to be done for that day and even provides handy check-off boxes to mark completed activities.

If you miss a day, a week, or even a month, upon logging in Homeschool Planet will help you make the changes to get you back on schedule again!  If you want to make changes you can easily shift things around at any time.

 Schedule your homeschool classes but also schedule vacations, dentist appointments, chores, birthdays, anniversaries, parties, dinners...the list is endless!

Homeschool Planet also allows you to keep grades, track classroom hours and print several different type of reports for filing in your portfolio, as well as print out a daily schedule or checklist. 

Overall I think Homeschool Planet is a great system for online planning.  I love how it encompasses both homeschool AND family life into one easy to use format. This was my first time trying out an online planner and it definitely took some adjustment on my part.  

The best thing was that, when we fell behind a day, I didn't have to get out my eraser and start making changes to my lesson plans.  It was simple to "slide" everything forward and make the necessary adjustments.

So, the real question might be, am I really sold on the idea of online tracking in favor of paper and pencil?  Maybe.  I keep going back to Homeschool Planet and I think if I ever get my life settled I will be ready to tackle it in earnest and see if I can really get this program to work for a stubborn paper and pencil gal like me.  

Do you want to give it a try?  

Homeschool Planet is offered through their brand new website: Homeschool Planet.  Homeschool Planet retails for $65 for a 1 year subscription or you can pay month-to-month for only $6.95 a month.  

You can do like I did!  Try it before you buy it by getting the 30 Day Free Trial!

I was given this product free of charge in exchange for an honest review.  

To read what the rest of the Mosaics Crew thought of Homeschool Planet check out the links here:

http://homeschoolmosaics.com/homeschool-planet/

Thanks so much to Homeschool Planet and  Home & School Mosaics for the opportunity to review this fantastic product!  

Wizzy Gizmo {Mosaic Reviews}

We always love a good audio book!  Audio books for kids can be hard to find!  We also really, really, love a good radio drama!  We were excited to have an opportunity to review a product from Wizzy Gizmo.  We had a chance to listen to a great audio called Who Created Everything? by Chris Del Aguila & Justin Cummins.  Wizzy Gizmo is a series of Bible books, audio dramas, flashcards and more!  Their main purpose is to "Equip children for life by exploring God's Word."  They offer several products with a lot more coming soon!

Now, you might be wondering...  just who is this Wizzy Gizmo fella?  Wizzy Gizmo is a scientist.  A genius.  An inventor who makes amazing and fun "gizmos."  He is a little bit odd (a real eccentric) and he is a little bit clumsy but he is a "wiz" at what he does!  Inventing stuff!  Wiz enjoys exploring the Bible and his invention "Gizmovision" will bring the Bible to life!

When a little boy named Eli moves to town he becomes instant friends Thomas, Summer and Olive, other neighborhood children.  They are on their way to see their friend Wizzy and take Eli along to meet their friend and check out some of his new inventions!  After examining his latest amazing invention, Gizmovision, the friends are suddenly swept away on a Biblical adventure through the story of Creation as found in the Book of Genesis, Chapter 1.

This audio is a full radio drama with lots of sound effects, characterization, and fun!  It is of good quality and very easy to get pulled into the story.  My kids LOVED Pepe the dog (who can talk through an invention) and Quacky the robot-duck who is just plain silly.  My kids are ages 8 and 4 and both of them found the audio to be interesting and engaging.   Any WizzyGizmo product would be a nice addition to any Christian homeschool curriculum or as a family devotional.

Wizzy Gizmo - Who Created Everything is available on WizzyGizmo.com as a CD + digital download for $14.99 or as a digital download only for $9.99.


Wizzy Gizmo also offers several other products too!  They have a book series that follows the Audio CDs.  These are great.  They include vocabulary and review questions that are a nice complement to the book or audio.   They have a Fast Track Bible Pack which are flashcards that offer Bible book summaries, key passages, people, and doctrine.

WizzyGizmo.com offers free shipping on ordes of $25 or more.



Thank you so much to Mosaic Reviews team and Wizzy Gizmo for the opportunity to review this great quality product!  I was given this product free of charge in exchange for this review.  All opinions expressed here are my own.

Reading Eggs Review & FREE TRIAL! {Mosaics Review}

My kids are seriously computer savvy.  We LOVE learning online and have taken quite a tour of many different online programs in the past finding so many wonderful qualities in each one.  But some of the programs we love more than others and I was really excited to get an opportunity to review Reading Eggs with Maggie!  Now that she is 4 she is really making it clear that she wants to do school too and finding a simple online program has been such a fun way to get her feet wet in computer-based learning.  Thank you so much to Reading Eggs and the Mosaics Reviews team for giving us an opportunity to review this product!

What is Reading Eggs?
Reading Eggs has made it their mission to make learning to read fun and enjoyable for your children.  It is easy to use and its virtual world encourages kids to learn...and they don't even realize that they are doing it!  They think they are just having fun and playing games!  There are 120 learn-to-read lessons and 96 spelling lessons on Reading Eggs that are perfect for kids about ages 3 to 7.

Reading Eggs also offers a reading program for older children for children who have completed the Reading Eggs program or who are reading for early chapter books as well as a newer program called Mathseed for Math!  We were given a free trial to Reading Eggs for this review and I'm really glad that I get an opportunity to share my thoughts with you as well as offer an opportunity to get a 5 week FREE trial of your own!

How Does Reading Eggs Work?
Reading Eggs is super simple to use.  Upon login your child would see this screen below.  They can enter which ever program they are wanting to work in.  Maggie, so far, has only tried Reading Eggs (although I'm hoping to try out Math Seeds with her soon because it looks really amazing!)

This opens up your childs dashboard and they choose where to go next…  I usually have Maggie complete a lesson before she can play in the Playroom, My House or Arcade.

After choosing "Lessons" it pulls up her game board.  This screenshot shows you where she is currently in her lessons.  After clicking not the bird she gets started with the program!

There are a lot of different activities.  When we logged in for the very first time it gave you the option to test your childs level so they would be placed appropriately on the game board.  We opted to just start at the beginning since Maggie had very little by way of reading/phonics skills.  She breezed through the first 20+ lessons and is finally feeling pretty challenged as now she is required to phonetically sound out some words and recognize sight words quickly.   In this activity Maggie is learning how to draw an "S."

This activity has Maggie dragging the word to the correct picture.   Honestly, she learned how to do this within a matter of a few days.  I had no idea that she could learn the phonics behind reading that fast!  And it is FUN!  Completing activities earns you golden eggs that you can spend in Reggie's Store.

This activity has Maggie spelling her own words.  Wow!  She has learned a lot and I'm surprised at how well she does!  Most of the activities are simple to manipulate but still challenging.  Maggie has learned a ton of sight words and can recognize them in different settings as well as increased her grasp of phonics and discovering how they string together to make words.

Now, there are two activities that have really caused some frustration…one of them is this one.  You have to stack up those falling bricks.  This requires you to either click the left and right arrows to match them up or use the arrow keys on your keyboard.  Maggie is just not quite coordinated enough that when the bricks are close to the top…she can't coordinate her fingers fast enough to get them to land where they need to go...

Then this activity (Golden Goose) requires her to match up the words.  It is timed and she can not get through this activity without getting frazzled.  She just can't coordinate the clicking and reading before the timer makes her do the activity again.  I ended up doing the clicking while she pointed.  Otherwise she wanted to quit and not play Reading Eggs anymore.

Once Maggie completes a full lesson she is free to play in the Playroom or Arcade, or go "shopping" in Reggie's store.  The Playroom is really fun.  the kids can explore the room playing kitchen, music, puzzles, reading, and more.

The Arcade has fun games that lets you earn extra golden eggs to spend in Reggie's Shop.

 In Reggie's Shop you can spend your golden eggs….

 You can use the stuff you buy to update your avatar!

There is SO much more to this program that I could share with you that we haven't really explored much of yet.  You can visit the music cafe, your house, see your awards, read books, check out your cool critters, and write stories in the story factory!  It is a very comprehensive program that offers something fun for kids of all learning types.

A couple other things:  Reading Eggs is compatible on both iMac and PC computers and there is an app for both Android and Apple devices.

Our overall thoughts about Reading Eggs:
Maggie really has enjoyed playing with the program and asks to do it outside of school time.  She also does more than one lesson in one sitting just for fun.  Once she completes a lesson she has fun playing in the Playroom or Arcade.  It is easy enough for her to use independently but I do have to help her with some of the activities that require more fine motor skills than she has just yet.  I don't mind though, it gives me an opportunity to really see what she is struggling with.  Oh!  I forgot to mention, when your child earns a certificate in the program you receive an email letting you know that your child has advanced.  Plus you can print off the certificate for your records.  How cool is that?  

Reading eggs retails on their website ReadingEggs.com for $49.95 for a 6 months subscription and $69.00 for a 1 year subscription.  You can also add a 2nd or 3rd child and receive 50% off their subscription price.  There are also options to buy book packs that go along with the lessons.

But, don't fort the part where I mentioned you can receive a free 5 week Reading Eggs trial!  

Here are the details...

The Reading Eggs Read-To-Cure Challenge:
From February 3rd to March 7th your child can join thousands of children across the US taking part in the Reading Eggs Read-To-Cure Challenge - an effort to inspire children to read while raising funds for The National Children's Cancer Society )NCCS).  Our goal is to raise $25,000, plus Reading Eggs will match every donation made up to this amount!


About the cause:

The Reading Eggs Read-To-Cure Challenge aims to help the NCCS realize their mission to improve the quality of life for children with cancer. All money raised will help provide financial, emotional and educational support for children and families battling childhood cancer. Learn more about the NCCS at www.thenccs.org.

How does the Read-To-Cure Challenge work?
Children sign up for a FREE 5 week trial of Reading Eggs, the popular online reading program for 3– 13 year olds. From February 3 to March 7 they are encouraged to complete as many books and Reading Eggs lessons as they can. Friends and family can sponsor their reading efforts, with all money raised going to the NCCS*.

What’s more, there are great prizes up for grabs for the top 3 children who read the most books and the top 3 children who raise the most funds!

The Reading Eggs Read-To-Cure Challenge is a FREE event. To start fundraising, children will be set up with their own fundraising web page and you can email family and friends to sponsor their reading efforts with donations!  

To Sign up to join this challenge and start using your free 5 week trial of Reading Eggs visit:  www.readingeggs.com/care.  

Discloser:  We received this program free of charge in exchange for an honest review.  Many of my fellow cremates also reviewed reading eggs and you can check out their thoughts by visiting HomeschoolMosaics.com.  

*NCCS will earn a minimum of $25,000 from Reading Eggs plus 100% of the donations collected by RTCC participants

Udderly Smooth {Mosaic Review}

What a great time of  year to try out some products from Udderly Smooth!  Both of my girls have dry skin and struggle with eczema.  Maggie especially talks about her "bumpy-bumpies" on her arms.  I try to remember to put lotion on her poor dry arms, but I tend to forget which doesn't help her bumpies get better.  Trying expensive lotions hasn't helped a whole lot either.  I was excited to try out the lotions from Udderly Smooth.  I've seen them in the store but have never purchased them, and now that that I've tried them, I get to tell you all about it!

About Udderly Smooth:

Udderly Smooth® Udder Cream was originally invented in Ohio use on dairy cows under harsh conditions. Now used for dry and chapped skin on people worldwide . Product uses also include:

* Dry and chapped skin
* As a shaving lotion
* Diabetes skin care
* Hand and Foot Syndrome- a side effect of chemotherapy drugs
* Chamois cream for bicyclists
* Needlework and quilting

We received:

Original Formula Body Cream, Shea Butter Dry Foot Cream and 2 tubes of Hand Cream, samples to share and a coupon!  Thank you so much Udderly Smooth for being so generous!

All 3 products we tried are lightly fragranced.  I think they have a very nice, muted scent, but for those who are sensitive to these types of products, many of Udderly Smooth's lotions are available fragrance free.  The lotions are smooth and do not leave a greasy residue.  It absorbs quickly and I didn't have any worries about it getting on my daughters clothing like some other types of lotions that go on thick and heavy.  With my daughters "bumpies" she tends to get upset when I want to put lotion on her.  Sometimes it stings, but she was so thrilled with the Body Cream.  No stinging.  She said she thought it felt like "mayonnaise."  (I'm not sure when Maggie smeared Mayonnaise on her skin, but whatever, haha).    No one in my immediate family has severely dry feet so I can't say how well the foot cream works but we all have problems with dry hands and faces and, so far, the light moisture of Udderly Smooth hand cream and body cream both have a very nice hydrating effect.

You can find Udderly Smooth products at most major retailers or on UdderlySmooth.com.  The price is right in my opinion, ranging from $5.75 for a 12 oz canister of Body Cream, $6.50 for an 8 oz Foot Cream, $2.75 for the 4 oz tube of hand cream and $1.75 for the 2 oz tube.  (Hello Stocking Stuffer!)

You can find all items for purchase here.  When compared to some of the "fancy" lotions I've bought in the past, this is a great price and a great product!

Several of my team mates also reviewed Udderly Smooth products.  Find out their thoughts on the Mosaic Reviews Udderly Smooth link up page!

My Little Pony, Party of One {Mosaic Review}

Finding apps that are appropriate for younger kids is tough.  A lot of the apps that are free flash enticing buttons that want you to buy something.  Not to mention the free apps are "lite" and there is not much there.  The down side of paying apps?  You have to pay for them…before you try them.  What if you don't like it?  You have to rely pretty heavily on reviews to try to figure out if that app is worth purchasing.  Well, here is one less app that you have to wonder about!  I got the privilege of reviewing a fun app from PlayDate Digital called My Little Pony, Party of One.

This app takes your child on an adventure with all her favorite pony friends!   Pinkie Pie throws the best parties, but when she is ready to throw a party for her friends she finds that they are all too busy!  What is going on?  Frustrated Pinkie Pie tries to figure out why they are all too busy for her.   Eventually, Pinkie Pie convinces herself she doesn't need to have a party with her friends when she can have a "party of one."  Luckily Pinkie Pie's friends, Rainbow Dash, Fluttershy, Apple Jack, Rarity and Twilight Sparkle step in at the last minute and show her just how much they care!

This app is a fun interactive storybook that is designed for preschoolers.  It is easy to use and takes you through 17 screens.  When something is "highlighted" it can be animated and the child needs only to tap the highlighted character to bring each pony to life.  The voice of Pinkie Pie is the original voice-actress from the TV series.  New words are in purple and upon tapped will be repeated.

Here is a sneak peak at what this app is all about:



Some learning goals of this app include:  helping children understand feelings about friendship, tension and misunderstandings.  Learning new vocabulary words.  Seeing things from another perspective.  Developing empathy.  Effective communication and much more!

A behind-the-scenes parent portal lets you see how your child is progressing by showing what purple words they tapped and what screen they are on.  It also allows you to reset the story app so you can track another child, or track your child a 2nd time.  Links to other recommended apps, the Play Date Digital website, contact information and Facebook page are also found in the parent portal.

This app is perfect for my almost-4-year-old to navigate independently.  She really had a lot of fun going through the pages.  She would hit the same character over and over again and just giggle!

This app is a lot of fun and my both my girls really enjoyed it.  The only thing that would make this app better would be to define the highlighted words in purple when you tapped on them.  Right now it repeats the word for you, but it doesn't tell you what it means. It seemed like a good place then to define these unfamiliar words would be in the word "roundup," but it uses words like "box, hat, apple, etc."

My Little Pony, Party of One is available for both iPhone and iPad for the low price of $2.99!

Many of my Mosaic Teammates also reviewed this app!

To see their thoughts check out the linky on Mosaics.com

A Light For My Path {Mosaic Review}

As part of the Mosaic Reviews team we had an opportunity to review a new product from Apologia called A Light For My Path: An ABC Book Based on Psalm 119 written by Davis Carman and illustrated by Alice Ratterree.  We currently use Apologia's elementary science and have used several products in the past as well so it was great to review something from Apologia that was a little bit different.

A Light For My Path is geared toward a younger audience (preschoolers) but a delight for bigger kids  (my 3rd grader enjoyed it as well!).  It introduces both the English alphabet (all 26 letters) and 22 letters of the Hebrew alphabet.  Designed to introduce God's word into the hearts of young and old alike A Light For My Path brings the wonders of God's creations through Psalm 119.   Each letter is gorgeously introduced and decorated with animals and other beautiful creatures.

The introductory material gives the parent or teacher some tips on how to use the book and author, David Carman describes the books purpose as 4-fold.  First, read while cuddling with your child to bond with them.  Next, it helps children learn the letters of the alphabet both upper case and lower case and an animal that starts with that sound and a precept from God that also starts with that letter.  Finally, it is meant to help children learn a love and reverence for God and His creations.

This is not a small book, 80 pages of beautiful illustrations.  My kids enjoyed this book as we cuddled up on the couch and I found my older daughter reading it to my youngest several times.  The consistent "God's word, law, statutes, decrees, and precepts are..." were catchy and my 3 year old could "read" the book by herself after listening to it a few times.  

Each page also has an animal "follow you" from one page to the next, my kids had fun finding the animal that jumped onto the next page!  The last pages introduce the Hebrew alphabet and Psalm 119. Overall this cute book would be a welcome addition to any preschool library helping your child learn the alphabet AND God's word.

A Light For My Path retails for $14.00 and can be purchased on Apologia's website.  If you'd like to see a little bit more you can check out these sample pages.  Several of my teammates at Mosaic also reviewed a copy of this book.  You can read their reviews at MosaicReviews.com!